“Yes. You’ve stopped healing me. I’m tired.” His voice was teasing. He dusted my forehead with a kiss. “No alpha in history has the benefits I do. The experience and intelligence of age, the strength and stamina of youth, and an incredibly generous powerhouse of a sorceress that makes sure I am always at my absolute best, even when it takes away from the healing efforts on herself. I’m the luckiest man alive.”
“You only have to get blown up and magically knocked around to earn it.”
“Anyone would trade places with me, even without seeing your beauty.”
I rubbed my eyes and then buried my face in Austin’s neck, my heart swelling.
He entered my room and closed the door behind him. “Do you mind if I sleep in here with you?” He laid me on the bed and moved around the room, closing the windows and drawing the shades.
“No, that’s fine. I’m about to pass out, though. Whatever Mr. Tom gave me, it was strong. Two sips and I’m about done.”
Austin kicked off his shoes. “My sweats are clean. I put them on when I got here.”
With great effort, I shimmied out of my jeans and slipped beneath the covers. There he met me, his arm out, welcoming me in. I scooted in until I could nestle my head in the hollow between his shoulder and his neck, curling up against his big body. Any other time and I’d probably feel the fire of his warmth, the deliciousness of proximity, but this time I just felt comfort.
“Don’t let me sleep too long. I need to tackle that spell,” I muttered, blinking. It felt like they were becoming stickier and stickier until they finally wouldn’t open anymore.
“No sweat. Sweet dreams.”
I didn’t have sweet dreams, though. Images flashed through my mind of Edgar’s crazy setup near the crystals, of random words floating off the orange paper, of Agnes’s elixir, of Ulric standing there as I poked and prodded him with spells, of the gaping hole in my reasoning.
I sat up in a panic as the light dimmed within the cracks of the shades. Austin stirred beside me, reaching for me and dragging me back down to him. I curled up into his arms for one moment, his warmth soothing, my brain still firing. My subconscious had been working in overdrive the whole time my brain was powered down.
Facing the door, with Austin spooned around me, I closed my eyes and envisioned the sort of spell Elliot had been using. Something to contain the heat and energy of a person. A bubble of sorts, fizzing because of all that heat and energy. Glowing from the contained power.
But a bubble didn’t need to be torn away, per se—it needed to be popped. Perhaps my attempts at stripping Ulric of the spell hadn’t worked because of the way I was tearing at it. A sharp, focused prick of power was the way to go.
I wondered if the potion would then dissolve away, or hang out on the body. The latter would be the best-case scenario for me, for sure. I wanted the trespassers to have a false sense of security and I doubted I’d have time to come up with a replacement fizzy spell. The beat of threat was pounding in my head, almost like a palpable thing. I couldn’t feel anyone on my property, but my gut said they were out there, focused on this house. Focused on me and the prize of my magic.
Austin stirred again and rubbed his eyes. He nuzzled into my neck for a moment, as though breathing in my scent. He rolled away, standing.
“You feel the pressure too, huh?” I threw my legs over the edge of the bed.
He ran his fingers through his hair and opened his mouth to answer.
The feeling of movement stampeded through my chest. The basajaun was running. Toward the house.
Something was happening.
“Time to go.” I stepped into my jeans as a lone howl drifted through the air, one beautiful note, wavering in the air. A wolf singing its song. One last placid moment before everything went to hell.
“That’s Logan.” Austin jogged to the door. “He’s reliable and savage, and he has a good head on his shoulders. I put him in the woods along the entrance of the court to let us know if anyone was coming.”
“The basajaun is running from the back. They’re closing us in.”
“Now we’ll get to see if it is one faction or two.”
I didn’t see how it would really matter.
I felt Niamh set foot on Ivy House property, moving as though she wasn’t in a hurry. Knowing her, that meant she felt pressure and was too stubborn to give in to it.
“Niamh is pulling in,” I said. “They must be nearly at her house. I have to get that spell finished off.”